4 ms·

It's an old company and struggles with a heavy legacy. They would need more than just a CEO to move things around.. It's a mindset and from the outside, IBM see

by wajdix 7y ago

It's an old company and struggles with a heavy legacy. They would need more than just a CEO to move things around.. It's a mindset and from the outside, IBM seems to me like an old government building that provides services in areas where it had 10yo+ contracts and clients are too lazy to switch to a better provider.. it's sad, but they will definitely have the ending NOKIA had.. maybe a bit more painful ending.. we can never know :)

mv4 7y ago
I agree that they need more than just a CEO. IBM's problems are very serious: 1. mid-level staff that's not technical, unable to get results quickly (one tends to get that mentality from massive open-ended consulting engagements w/o clear success metrics in place) 2. surreal TV ads aside, their brand is not visible on a daily basis, there's no consumer offering with IBM logo on it 3. there is no modern cloud offering (Softlayer ain't one) 4. their marketing of Watson has been so extreme, and so out of touch with technical realities, it's becoming a liability
mv4 7y ago
... on the other hand, this is what IBM does have, that I would leverage if I were CEO: 1. solid mainframe business (yes) 2. massive customer list 3. significant infrastructure (softlayer etc) that could be turned into a cloud offering 4. huge long-term consulting engagements that can turn into success stories, if run by ppl capable of delivering quick results One more thing I would do if I were CEO - I would come up with a way to put that IBM logo in front of people... Perhaps something along the lines of "Alexa for business", based on IBM's flavor of business AI.
smacktoward 7y ago
I dunno, Lou Gerstner (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_V._Gerstner_Jr. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_V._Gerstner_Jr.) managed to change IBM's direction pretty dramatically back in the '90s. Of course, the new direction he set them on (stop developing innovative things, focus instead on high-margin consulting and services) is the one everyone's complaining about now. So...
raptorraver 7y ago
Just a sidenote that Nokia reinvented itself and is nowadays doing relatively good in the networking business.

by wajdix 7y ago

mv4 7y ago

I agree that they need more than just a CEO. IBM's problems are very serious: 1. mid-level staff that's not technical, unable to get results quickly (one tends to get that mentality from massive open-ended consulting engagements w/o clear success metrics in place) 2. surreal TV ads aside, their brand is not visible on a daily basis, there's no consumer offering with IBM logo on it 3. there is no modern cloud offering (Softlayer ain't one) 4. their marketing of Watson has been so extreme, and so out of touch with technical realities, it's becoming a liability

mv4 7y ago

... on the other hand, this is what IBM does have, that I would leverage if I were CEO: 1. solid mainframe business (yes) 2. massive customer list 3. significant infrastructure (softlayer etc) that could be turned into a cloud offering 4. huge long-term consulting engagements that can turn into success stories, if run by ppl capable of delivering quick results One more thing I would do if I were CEO - I would come up with a way to put that IBM logo in front of people... Perhaps something along the lines of "Alexa for business", based on IBM's flavor of business AI.

smacktoward 7y ago

I dunno, Lou Gerstner (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_V._Gerstner_Jr. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_V._Gerstner_Jr.) managed to change IBM's direction pretty dramatically back in the '90s. Of course, the new direction he set them on (stop developing innovative things, focus instead on high-margin consulting and services) is the one everyone's complaining about now. So...

raptorraver 7y ago

Just a sidenote that Nokia reinvented itself and is nowadays doing relatively good in the networking business.